Chevy Claims Volt Is No. 1 Selling Electric Plug-In, Sort of, Maybe

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Chevy Claims Volt Is No. 1 Selling Electric Plug-In, Sort of, Maybe

© courtesy of Chevrolet

General Motors Co.’s (NYSE: GM) Chevy says it has the number one selling electric plug-in car. In the war for primacy among electric cars, the definition and claims have gotten muddy. Chevy management knows that. And its claim benefits from consumer confusion.

The boast is based on vehicle registrations of the Volt and Spark EVs between December 2010 and February 2016. That boast comes with an asterisk buried in the advertising for the “new Volt.” The time period, unless Chevy has some secret, is random.

What is an electric plug-in vehicle? Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) management would say a car that runs on nothing other than batteries. The Chevy Volt is not like that. Its motors are:

Offering up to 53 pure electric miles† and up to 420 miles† with a full charge and a full tank of gas, the new Volt allows you to make fewer stops, letting you focus on your commute. Plus, Chevrolet expects owners will drive 1,000 miles† between fill-ups with regular charging, making the gas station a distant memory.

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The 420 miles with a tank of gas begs the question of what is electric, what is plug-in and why Chevy promotion material says:

Volt is the electric car with a backup plan.

The “backup” is nothing more than a traditional gas-powered engine.

Chevy offers more qualifications about the Volt engines as well, but they are hard to find on the Chevy website.

The largest division of GM might as well say it has a gas-powered car that is supported by an electric engine. It would be more accurate.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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